Around June 19, 1826

In this day and age, newspapers rarely print fiction. Of course, there is the occasional magical story written by a third grade class that appears every once a week in the Arts and Entertainment section of the paper, but for the most part, fictional stories of real substance are not published in newspapers anymore. This was not the case in the 1800's. Appearing in The Valley Star each week was...

Thomas L. McKenney, Superintendant of Indian Affairs under President James Madison, kept a diary of his accounts while traveling through the Michigan Territory in 1826 to negotiate a treaty between the US Government and the Ojibwe, Menominee, and Winnebago tribes of Native Americans. Among his detailed descriptions, McKenney mentions the presence in the city of Detroit of some strange earthen mounds...

The 50th Anniversary of Independence Day was a very significant event across the United States. The minutes recorded in Marietta, Ohio, on June 14 and 15 1826, for this celebration nearly one month prior to the jubilee illustrates how important the event would be for the first organized settlement of the Northwest Territory. Caleb Emerson was one of the many coordinators who planned the...

Helen Lane and Arthur S. Johns requested the presence of John Ambler and his family to their Tuesday morning wedding in the area of Louisa and Hanover counties. The bride's family sent out the invitation and they requested that the Ambler family attend the wedding. The ceremony was scheduled for Tuesday morning at nine am.

A cold January day in 1825, 32 Petersburg men gathered in a Petersburg Tavern with the future on their minds. The skilled merchants of Petersburg formed the Benevolent Mechanics Association. They were made up of a variety of skilled craftsmen which included tailors, blacksmiths, watchmakers, bookbinders, tanners, and more. The first initiative of the Association was purchasing a library for apprentices...

Life on a plantation during the nineteenth century has been dramatized by the movies today to show a picturesque world. In reality, it could be a very harsh world to live in where the profits were not always as high as expected and tragedies often occurred. Caroline Merrick remembered a very early childhood that was fraught with such tragedy. At an early age on a plantation in Louisiana, her mother...

It was 1825, and strange happenings were occurring around the house of Dr. John McChesney in Augusta County, Virginia. According to the Annals of Augusta County, a historical record of the County, it all had started when Maria, one of Dr. McChesney's enslaved children, came to dinner one night very much frightened, apparently having been chased by an old woman with her head tied up....

On January 29th, 1825, Postmaster General John McLean wrote a letter to Henry Clay, Speaker of the House of Representatives, explaining the horrible traveling conditions that had to be endured to carry the mail between Baltimore, Maryland, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. McLean discussed the horrendous traveling circumstances during the winter and spring seasons when crossing the different rivers...

Thomas Jefferson- the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and father of the University of Virginia- died at 12:50 p.m. on July 4, 1826 at the age of 83 in his beloved home of Monticello. Newspapers were filled with remembrances of that special day in American history, and Jefferson’s role in it, making this day a memorial to the man even...

Alexander Gall advertised his ice delivery service in Portsmouth's American Beacon and Portsmouth Daily on May 18, 1826. Gall's advertisement ran in the local newspaper for a month. This allowed for the news of Gall's service to effectively spread among the people of Portsmouth. Gall brought ice to the homes of his customers in a horse-drawn wagon. Gall delivered ice daily to...